Wednesday, 3 December 2008

The role of The University of Western Australia's authority on all aspects of herbicide resistance from basic biochemical understanding of how plants develop resistance to practical management on-farm, has been expanded.

Professor Stephen Powles, one of the most highly cited plant scientists in the world, has been appointed as one of three inaugural Science Fellows to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.

He will be regularly called to Canberra where he already meets as Expert Adviser to another body, the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee providing scientific advice on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

As Director of the WA Herbicide Resistance Initiative in UWA's School of Plant Biology, Professor Powles is equally interested in the generation of new knowledge and its application in cropping systems.  He is renowned for his contribution to managing herbicide resistant weeds.

Australia has the biggest herbicide resistance problem in the world - and a few weeks ago Professor Powles shared his experiences with scientists and industry in the US and South Africa, where his visit was funded by the South African Government.

Professor Powles has recently accepted an invitation to write a review on herbicide resistance for the 2009 volume of the prestigious ‘Annual Review of Plant Biology' - a journal with the highest impact in the plant sciences.

Media references

Professor Stephen Powles (+61 8)  6488 7833  /  (+61 4) 18 927 181
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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